Wednesday, 29 February 2012

Starz have released the first trailer for their new 1959 drama Magic City, starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen), Christian Cooke (Cemetery Junction), Olga Kurylenko (Quantum Of Solace) and Danny Huston (30 Days Of Night). It's created by Mitch Glazer (The Recruit), and co-produced by Ed Bianchi (The Wire).

The show is described by the network thus:

"As Frank Sinatra rings in a new year in the grand ballroom of Miami Beach's most luxurious dream palace—the Miramar Hotel—its visionary leader, Ike Evans (Morgan), must deal with the Mob, his complicated family and a city in the midst of dramatic change as Fidel Castro takes control of Cuba, just 200 miles offshore. By day the hotel at the center of 'Magic City' is all diving clown acts and cha-cha lessons by the pool, but at night Miami Beach reveals a darker truth. Dopers, dealers, strippers, gangsters and those who arrest them drift together to hear the top nightclub acts perform. Just beneath the surface, racial tensions stir. Ike must deal with all of this, even while global intrigue is brewing right under his roof."

Comparisons will tediously be made to Mad Men, and the aesthetic of Magic City certainly looks very similar, but the story being told here is entirely different. Suffice to say this looks far more promising than recent mainstream attempts to capture some mid-20th century cool with The Playboy Club and Pan Am. It all looks great, but I'm not sure I have the time or head space for another deep and involved drama, as almost every channel has one vying for audience attention.

What do you think? Will you be making room in your itinerary for Magic City? Are you feeling some fatigue with these prestige cable dramas?